Tribes Work To Diversify Their Economic Impact On Oklahoma

Though gaming operations continue to be a large economic focus for Oklahoma’s tribes, they are continuing to reach out into other endeavors. These projects include healthcare, retail, manufacturing, agriculture and more.

Journal Record reporter Molly Fleming talked about the issue on The Business Intelligence Report.

FULL TRANSCRIPT

Jacob McCleland: It's the Business Intelligence Report, a weekly conversation about business news in Oklahoma. I'm Jacob McCleland and I'm joined by Journal Record reporter Molly Fleming. Molly, thank you for talking with us.

Fleming: They are doing a lot. The tribe has expanded its business operations to include real estate management, logistics, technology, manufacturing and hospitality. They also built a large shopping center in Tahlequah, where they've brought in several chain restaurants including a Buffalo Wild Wings. Secretary of State Chuck Hoskin, Jr., I know, has said before that the tribe's revenue now about 40 percent of it comes from non-gaming sources.

McCleland: The Cherokees are big players in health care in eastern Oklahoma. Tell us a little bit about that.

Fleming: So the tribe is building right now a 500,000 square foot hospital and because of that, the OSU med school is opening a branch there where seeing as we learn more about rural medicine, which will come into play, I know, in another story we're going to talk about later. So this will be one of the largest tribal health care facilities in the country. Once again Cherokee Nation Secretary of State Chuck Hoskin, Jr. said the tribe is constructing $100 million worth of new health care facilities and clinics, and expanding its business arm to include health care construction management.

Fleming: They provide jobs, which is huge in rural Oklahoma and they're jobs that are not related to gaming or oil and gas. These facilities will give kids there a reason to go to college because they can come back and work at their town hospital. And really it's a lasting legacy. A nearly $60 million investment in the town of 3,000 people, that's a lot of money.

Fleming: They've done a lot together. Anadarko moved to highlight and celebrate native culture and tribal citizens' contributions. So they add a new park benches and remodeled the visitor's center at the Native American Hall of Fame. In 2016, Anadarko was the first city to abolish Columbus Day in favor of Indigenous Peoples Day. They also built a flag plaza featuring tribal nations flags. The other part was, though half of the residents are Native American, there were no tribal citizens on the city council until a few years ago. And at that time, city manager Kenneth Corn nominated a Wichita citizen to fill the spot and the tribal members had been weighing in on the city's utility code changes and the city adopted all of the tribe's recommendations.

Fleming: They kind of just stumbled into it. The Choctaw Nation had trees on their land and so began managing the 4,500 trees they had. And then it purchased more. In 2016 and 2017, the tribe purchased two additional improved variety pecan orchards south of Idabel that included 3,150 additional trees on 300 acres of pecan property. So now the tribe sells those pecans, they roast them, put some cinnamon and sugar on them, and they sell them in their tribal plazas and casinos. And all these pecans are picked by seasonal and full time employees and then bagged and prepared by residents. So it's become a great job opportunity in that part of the state, which, as you know, has a high poverty level and high unemployment rate.

McCleland: Molly Fleming is a reporter for The Journal Record newspaper. Molly, thank you so much for talking with us.

Fleming: Hey, thank you Jacob.

McCleland: KGOU and the Journal Record collaborate each week on the Business Intelligence Report. You can find this conversation at kgou.org. You can also follow us on social media. We're on Facebook and Twitter @journalrecord and @kgounews.

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